Patrizia Scaglioni: Salute; To Your Health

story and photos by Danielle Gruden

The bright sienna-colored building near Italy’s Cagli tower is home to the town’s only  “Erboristeria” or herbalist’s shop. This is where Patrizia Scaglioni provides alternatives to modern-day medicine, dispensing medicinal herbs, herbal prescriptions, and specialty products to the town’s people.

Patrizia radiates kindness as she greets each customer with an electric smile and a warm “Ciao!” She stops everything to care for her customers. She listens patiently as she analyzes signs, symptoms, and needs, seeking and solving her customers’ afflictions. From a fresh, juicy peach to a customized concoction of herbs and supplements, she hopes to deliver patients happy bodies and minds. Her enthusiasm touches everyone who enters the store.

“I love what I am doing, nothing is bad...being able to help people,” Patrizia says.

Patrizia encompasses all that is her Erboristeria -- loving, gracious, healing, and comforting. However, her expertise reaches further. She conquers everyday ailments with herbal remedies. She focuses on treating the person as a whole, using a range of organic foods, diets plans, herbal remedies, and moving-meditation through Tai Chi. Pamphlets, books and guides found throughout the shop encourage knowledge and understanding about health. These items help patients understand Patrizia’s belief that natural products help improve their quality of life.

Her mastery has produced a following from all kinds of patients, including dogs. Their needs range from stomach and digestive issues to joint pain and headaches. She plucks remedies from her cupboard like a natural, but Patrizia  -- whose background is in sociology -- has not always owned the herbal shop. A distinct chain of events led her to the path she is on - changing not only what she does but how she and her family live.

Several years ago, her husband worked as a pharmacist. He was constantly tired as well as confused by the way people reacted to the medicines he prescribed. Sometimes, the drugs seemed to cause his patients more harm than good. When he, too, fell ill, not one of his prescriptions offered a cure. Willing to try an alternative route, Patrizia and her husband ventured to the nearby town of Pesaro to see a holistic healer. Soon after, Patrizia’s husband was cured, and their lives were forever changed. They began to practice and preach their newly found passion.

Patrizia and her family live differently than many Cagliese. They do not travel to the local cafe for a brioche in the morning followed by a glass of wine in the afternoon. Patrizia cooks meals at home so that she knows exactly what is in them and where the food comes from. She spends her days dispensing knowledge and teaching Tai Chi, taking yoga classes, and attending natural and alternative medicine conferences. To further expand her knowledge, she is currently taking classes on natural medicine in Remini at the University of Urbino.

Cagli is where her family is, where her business is, where her life is. Although she loves the town and has lived in it more than 25 years, she has a travel itch; she loves going to distant places – especially France and French Polynesia. Her sons have no interest in taking over the business, so she plans to eventually sell the Erboristeria to travel around the world and “make a grand time of it.”

No matter where she travels, Patrizia will keep helping those in need. She gives 100 percent of herself to every person who crosses her path. Plus, as she said, “It would be a shame if people didn’t have a store like mine here in Cagli.”